Saturday, August 25, 2012

Heat

This summer I became a
believer in global warming. I have
always preferred warm weather to cold, and for all the years I have been living
in Israel,
I never had trouble with the climate.
Yes, the summers were hot, very hot, but I never found it to be that
difficult to cope with or to prevent functioning normally.

This year has been
different. I am sure that this summer is
hotter than any summers for a long time.
What the statistics say I don’t know, but everyone I talk to about it
agrees with me.

Of course, there is that
tendency when talking about the weather to be sure that it is the hottest, or
coldest, or worst storm in the last twenty years, or the most rain or the least
rain – no one really goes to check the facts, we know what we are feeling,
right?

I refuse to consider that
with each year of growing older, maybe the weather is getting worse – for me…
The weather really is worse!

The dogs agree with me – it
is hot! I find it very hard to do much
of anything during the day. The dogs also spend most of their time lounging in
a shady spot, unless there is a really strong reason for getting up. The dogs start their activities at about four
in the morning, while it is quite cool, and have their morning running and
barking time, which ends at about 6:30 or seven. By then it is already getting hot. My schedule is quite similar, though not from
four – five or five thirty is the start of my working hours. The same is true in the evening – from about
five or six it starts cooling off and that is play time, until nine or ten at
night.

Although I am a morning
person by nature, I can’t say that these hours are really my preference. Couldn’t you guys wait until six?

But I can look out the
window in midday, and although most of the dogs have found themselves cool
spots in the shade, there are some that are lying out in the full sun,
obviously enjoying it.

Habibi is not one of
those. Desert dog? No way!
There is a cool house, air conditioning – his place is inside. He goes out for necessities – one of his
necessities is periodically to check if there is anything out there that has to
be barked at – and then places himself on the top step leaning against the
entrance door, just to make sure I don’t miss the fact that he is ready to come
in.

I have been trying to use
the air conditioning as little as possible – yes, for “green” reasons, but more
because electricity is so expensive these days.
But with the weather of July and August, I have given in, and use it for
a good part of the day.

Habibi knows exactly where
the air currents go, and his sleeping spots are right in the line of the cool
air. If I change the angle of the fan,
he will give me a pitying glance, lift his nose to test the air direction, and
calmly move to a better spot. He may be
a bed dog most of the time, but at this time of year, he gets on the bed only
when the air conditioner is on and is blowing a cool breeze across it. He then sprawls across the bed to catch every
bit of refreshing air across his whole body, leaving me struggling to find a
place for my legs.

1 comment:

Good to see a post from you again, and to hear how the pups are doing. I don't blame them for being smart and splitting their day like you described. How hot has it gotten where you live? Thankfully this year has been mild in my corner of Texas, only getting up to 100F a couple of times, tho in years past (like last year, during our segment of the drought that's affecting the rest of the US this year) we've had 110-115F for the high, with lows only dropping about 20 degrees overnight. Since I had a few years growing up before we had regular AC in our house, I can say that trying to sleep during a heat wave when it's still above body temperature isn't pleasant.

You still manage to post more frequently on your blog than I do on mine.